AMD officially announces Radeon R9 285 graphics card

The AMD Radeon R9 285 graphics card fills the SKU gap between the R9 280X and the R9 270X. Priced at US$249 during launch, the R9 285X also takes aim at the rival NVIDIA GTX 760.

According to its specifications, the R9 285 GPU appears to be based on a new GPU that is code named "Tonga". It supports both improved AMD CrossFire (without the need for an external bridge), and the AMD TrueAudio technologies.

AMD Radeon R9 GPUs Compared

Model

AMD Radeon R9 280X

AMD Radeon R9 285

AMD Radeon R9 270X

AMD Radeon R9 270

Core Code

Tahiti XT variant

Tonga

Curacao XT
(a.k.a. Pitcairn XT variant)

Curacao Pro
(a.k.a. Pitcairn XT variant)

Transistor Count

4.3 billion

N.A.

2.8 billion

2.8 billion

Manufacturing Process

28nm

28nm

28nm

28nm

Core Clock

Up to 1000MHz

Up to 918MHz

Up to 1050MHz

Up to 925MHz

Compute Performance

4.1 TFLOPS

3.29 TFLOPS

2.69 TFLOPS

2.37 TFLOPS

Stream Processors

2048

1792

1280

1280

Texture Mapping Units (TMUs)

128

112

80

80

Raster Operator units (ROP)

32

32

32

32

Onboard Memory

3GB GDDR5

2GB GDDR5

2GB / 4GB GDDR5

2GB GDDR5

Memory Clock

6000MHz

5500MHz

5600MHz

5600MHz

DDR Memory Bus

384-bit

256-bit

256-bit

256-bit

Memory Bandwidth

288GB/s

176GB/s

179.2GB/s

179.2GB/s

PCI Express Interface

PCIe ver 3.0 x16

PCIe ver 3.0 x16

PCIe ver 3.0 x16

PCIe ver 3.0 x16

Molex Power Connectors

1 x 6-pin, 1 x 6-pin

2 x 6-pin

2 x 6-pin

1 x 6-pin

Typical Board Power

250W

190W

180W

150W

Multi GPU Technology

AMD CrossFire; up to four GPUs

Improved AMD CrossFire, up to four GPUs

AMD CrossFire; up to two GPUs

Display Connectivity

2 x Dual-Link DVI

1 x HDMI

1 x DisplayPort

2 x Dual-Link DVI

1 x HDMI

1 x DisplayPort

2 x Dual-Link DVI

1 x HDMI

1 x DisplayPort

1 x Dual-Link DVI

1 x HDMI

1 x DisplayPort

AMD TrueAudio Technology

No

Yes

No

No

API Support

DirectX 12.0, OpenGL 4.3, AMD Mantle

Launch Price

US$299

US$249

US$199

US$179

The R9 285 GPU has 1,792 stream processors, and a maximum clock speed of 918MHz. Its 2GB video buffer has a 256-bit interface; however, AMD has confirmed that add-in card partners have the company’s blessings to bump up the video memory to 4GB for variant SKUs.

In addition, AMD has announced its Never Settle: Space Edition game bundle program. Like its previous campaign, there are three tiers of rewards for new owners of AMD Radeon R9 and R7 series graphics cards.

Gold reward tier: All R9 series graphics cards, and upon redemption of this offer, you can choose three game titles from a selection of 29 games.

Silver reward tier: R7 260 series graphics cards, and there is a choice to pick up to two games from 28 titles.

Bronze reward tier: R7 240 and 250 series cards, you can choose 1 free game from a selection of 18 titles.

For more information, you can visit this link for the deep space edition of AMD's Never Settle giveaway! In addition, there are already add-in card partners who have announced their R9 285 wares, and you can check them out here.